


Spirit of Victory

by Farashe



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:29:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29681208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farashe/pseuds/Farashe
Summary: Cullen's first impression when he sees the prisoner that walked out of the Fade for the first time.
Relationships: Female Inquisitor/Cullen Rutherford, Female Lavellan/Cullen Rutherford
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Spirit of Victory

This was folly. Throwing men toward the Temple of Sacred Ashes to bring the prisoner that was likely responsible for all of this death and disaster back to where it began? How could that be the plan? Good soldiers had already died and more would surely fall before this was over. But Cassandra assured him that this was their only lead to close the breach before it grew beyond any ability to control. They needed to act quickly.

The prisoner would be there soon to push to the Temple. Cullen fought with all the focus he could muster. He couldn’t let himself think about how much he’d prefer vengeance over providing a path for this woman. No, he was not fighting for her. He was fighting to protect those that remained under his command.

More demons emerged from this smaller tear, the last before the Temple itself. He heard a man scream in anguish as a shade clawed at his face. Then, finally, a familiar shout. That was Cassandra entering the fray and trying to lure the enemies toward her and away from the exhausted soldiers.

Her shout was followed quickly by another, this one unfamiliar but similar in ferocity. And Cullen saw the prisoner for the first time.

She was elven, that he had known already. Her slender frame did not seem sufficient to manage the great sword she wielded with seeming ease. Her dark red hair caught like flame in the sunlight and energy from a mage-cast barrier shimmered around her. Green light flickered from the mark on her left hand, and Cullen was dazzled. She looked more like a spirit of Victory than a mass-murderer.

Soon enough with this fresh assistance, the wave of demons was defeated.

“Now!” cried the apostate Solas urgently. “Seal it!”

The elven woman reached her left hand toward the rift, palm blazing. Green light arced toward her, connecting to the tear in the sky. Light and shadow shifted and twisted in crystalline formations for several long moments. Then with a great wrench of effort that even Cullen sensed, the rift closed and the mark on the prisoner’s hand faded. A brief shudder of pain ran through her frame, but she quickly recovered and moved toward Cassandra.

He followed.

“Well done, Seeker,” he told Cassandra.

Cassandra nodded to him in greeting then said, “it was the prisoner’s doing, Commander.” Cullen was surprised to hear a measure of respect, if grudging, coloring her voice.

Finally, Cullen looked at the elven prisoner full in the face for the first time. Her red hair was cropped short, and her Dalish tattoos were elaborate vines of dark green swirling over her narrow face. Even the tattoos could not overshadow the vibrancy of her eyes, however, open wide and tilted upward. Their color was an unusual and vivid violet. Her expression was impassive, but those eyes held a wealth of emotion: pain, sadness, fear, but also a fierce determination and nobility. 

She was breathtaking.

He had come prepared to hate her, but he couldn’t. In fact, looking at her, the emotion he felt most strongly now was… hope.

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's replaying Inquistion? This girl. Back on my fanfic bs. Please enjoy this short little thing. I'm really hoping I can start getting into writing again.
> 
> Thank you to my lovely beta/bestie, Delouest.


End file.
